Drum barker

ABSTRACT

A drum barker including a cylindrical drum having debarking means. The drum is supported by wheels on both sides, the wheels including elastic outer portions. A guide ring assembly is provided on the drum periphery for contacting wheel portions to resist axial drum movement. The guide ring assembly includes at least two guiding faces which extend obliquely from the drum periphery in a direction away from the wheel portions to reduce wearing of the wheel portions and to cushion the forces imparted during axial contact of the wheel portions and guide faces.

United States Patent 15] 3,695,319 Tuuha [451 Oct. 3, 1972 DRUM BARKER Primary Examiner-Donald R. Schran [72] Inventor: Rolf Erik Tuuha, Lansipuisto 20 C, AttOMeY'TBUmS Doane Swecker & Maths on, Finland 57] ABSTRACT [22] Filed: Nov. 2, 1970 21 Appl. No.2 86,044

A drum barker including a cylindrical drum having debarking means. The drum is supported by wheels on both sides, the wheels including elastic outer portions.

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data H A guide ring assembly is provided on the drum Nov. 6, 1969 Finland ..3206/69 p riph ry for contacting wheel portions to resist axial drum movement. The guide ring assembly includes at [52] US. Cl. ..l44/208 B least two guiding faces which extend obliquely from [51] Int. Cl. ..B27l 1/04 the drum periphery in a direction away from the wheel [58] Field of Search ..l44/208 B, 208 portions to reduce wearing of the wheel portions and to cushion the forces imparted during axial contact of [56] References Cited the wheel portions and guide faces.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 4 Claims 7 Drawing Figures 3,185,192 5/1965 Delcellier ..144/208 B 2/ 1Z a 2 L I i l 5 A I 4\ 11 6 I 13 l0 l3 l4 5 [I /-r /3 PATENTED 0613 I972 SHEEI 1 BF 4 Inventor: Ram-5 rum/A 6MN OM,JM1

PATENTEDIIEI 3 I972 saw u or 4 Inventor.- ROLF E. 77/01/14 DRUM BARKER The object of this invention relates to a drum barker with its cylindrical drum supported on wheels on both sides of the drum.

There are known such drum barkers of the above type, where the wheels supporting the drum are rubber wheels in contact with the outer surface of the drum, all or part of which wheels are driven to cause the drum to rotate.

To prevent displacement in the direction of the axis of the drum, i.e., to accomplish so-called axial guiding, one may use auxiliary devices in the same way as in present sofar known drum barkers which are supported by wheels entirely of metal, e.g., by using guiding rings at the ends of the drum and separate guiding rollers, en tirely of metal, in the radial direction of the drum, to guide their path.

Guiding rollers of this kind, however, are laborious to make and are very apt to break under the hard blows they are subjected to by the drum striving to move in axial direction.

The aim of this invention is to eliminate the disadvantages presented above, which is accomplished by the drum barker according to the invention, of which the main characteristic feature is, that the axial guiding of the drum is accomplished by supporting wheels covered by rubber or furnished with rubber tires as well as guiding rings made of angle bars and fixed on the outer surface of the drum, wherein the guiding rings include oblique side surfaces coming to contact with the guiding wheels provided, e.g., with pneumatic rubber tires, as the drum is striving to move in axial direction.

A marked advantage accomplished by the drum barker according to the invention constitutes the fact that the axial displacement of the drum is gradually moderated, and very evenly, when the rubber surfaces of the supporting wheels, particularly the surfaces of pneumatic rubber tires, come to contact with the oblique side surfaces of the guiding rings on the outer surface of the drum. The supporting wheels, or part of them, also function as guiding wheels, which serves to reduce the cost of construction.

The invention is clarified further below and in the enclosed drawings, in which FIG. 1 presents from the side a drum barker according to the invention,

FIG. 2 presents from above the same as FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 presents from the feeding or filling end the drum barker according to FIGS. 1 and 2,

FIG. 4 presents from the leaving end the drum barker according to the foregoing figures,

FIG. 5 presents a section taken over the line V--V in FIG. 1, and

FIG. 6 presents a section taken over the line VI-VI in FIG. 1,

FIG. 7 presents as a partial projection on a larger scale than the foregoing, a longitudinal section of the drum near the guiding ring.

The drum barker according to the invention comprises a cylindrical drum 1 partly open at the ends, the inner surface of which is furnished with longitudinal handle-like barking steels or similar projections 2 (FIG. 5 and 6) to improve barking. In addition one or 'more transversal reinforcing rings 3, 23 may be fixed on the inner surface of the drum. Such reinforcing rings are presented by dotted lines in FIG. 2.

Instead of, or in addition to, the ring being fixed on the inner surface of the drum, it is possible to fix a corresponding reinforcing ring or reinforcing rings on the outer surface of the drum too, which in practice often appears favorable, although no such reinforcing rings fixed on the outer surface are presented in the drawing.

The drum 1 is arranged to rest in horizontal position on several systems of wheels placed in a row on both sides of the drum. In the case presented each wheel system 7, 8 and 9 comprises four wheels 10 fixed side by side on a horizontal axle I mounted to bearing brackets 13 on a suitable foundation 12. The wheels 10 may be provided with a compact rubber ring on the outer periphery, or they may be provided like the automobile wheels with pneumatic tires, such as automobile tires, into the working surface of which any suitable patterns, roughnesses, grooves, or the like, may have been made, just as in automobile tires.

In order to rotate the drum 1 all wheel systems on one or both sides of the drum, or part of them, e.g., the wheel systems 8 presented in FIG. 1, may be driven for instance by an electric motor 14, or some other power engine or power transmission device. It is also possible that all the wheel systems on the same side of the drum may be mounted to a common axle driven by a motor.

When the drum barker operates, the timber to be barked is conducted by means of some suitable device continuously into the drum 1 through the feeding opening 18 (FIG. 3) in the feeding end 4. The logs rub against each other as well against the wall of the drum and the projections or barking steels 2, and thus are barked while moving to the leaving end 5, where they are discharging through the opening 19 (FIG. 4). Near the opening, water is sprayed on the logs through nozzles 20 in order to remove loose bark and litter. However, it is also possible to place the water sprays at the feeding end of the drum in order to soak the bark, and during winter to melt the frozen timber and the ice attached to it. On this account the water brought to the feeding end is suitably warm or hot.

The numeral 23 refers to the ring-shaped wall inside of the drum, the inner diameter of which is a little larger than the inner diameter of the ring-shaped wall 24 of the feeding end. On this account the water sprayed into the feeding end of the drum collects between the rings 23 and 24 and runs over the lower edge of the opening at the center of the ring 23 towards the left in FIG. 2. Part of the warm water sprayed into the drum stays a given time between the rings 23 and 24 so that the heating effect of the water and the effect of soaking the bark thus can be favorably utilized. In front of and near the ring-shaped body 24, partly closing the feeding end, and parallel to the plane of the ring 24, a stationary plate-like wall 25 is provided, over the upper edge 26 of which the logs are fed into the drum. When the drum rotates, the logs fed into the drum are spread out over the lower edge of the opening at the center of the ring 23, as they approach the leaving end and are discharged through the opening 19 at the leaving end 5 for further transport by a conveyor.

The bark detached from the timber .is discharged through openings 21 in the surface of the drum 1 into funnels 22 at the sides of the drum, from which the bark is conducted away, e.g. together with water running in channels under the funnels, or by means of conveyor belts, for further treatment.

The axial guiding is accomplished according to the invention in such a way, that a socalled guiding ring or guiding rings 6 are fixed on the surface of the drum, which together with the supporting wheel or supporting wheels of wheels system 9, situated near the mentioned rings, accomplish the axial guiding. The last-mentioned supporting wheels of wheel system 9 may, at the same time be driving wheels, or as most often is the case, they are not. In the case according to FIGS. 1, 2 and 7, the guiding ring 6 is made of angle bar bent to ring shape in such a manner, that the extreme ends of its cross-sectional branches, or flanges, contact the surface of the drum, where they are rigidly fixed e.g. by welding. The flanges of each ring thus extend convergingly outwardly from the drum surfaces.

The guide rings are disposed adjacent the ends of the wheel system 9. The inner flange of each guide ring defines a guide face which extends obliquely from the outer drum surface in a direction away from an adjacent wheel (FIG. 7).

As the drum is striving to move axially to the right in FIG. 7, the obligue right-hand guide surface, or face, of the angle bar 6 is striving to press the side surface portion of the pneumatic wheel 10 of wheel system 9 towards the right. The upwardly directed component of the pressing force is not appreciable enough to lift the drum, due to its great weight, in response to which the pneumatic ring somewhat flattens from the side at the guiding ring. As a total result of the force component created by the tendency of axial movement by the drum towards the right, and the force component of the weight of the drum in a downward direction, a resultant of forces is obtained which is efficiently and elastically moderated by the rubber ring of the guiding wheel, and by the pneumatic ring in particular. For instance, if one would use instead of a guiding ring made of angle bar a corresponding ring made of U-shaped bar having its cross-sectional flanges extending in the direction of the drum radius, and if the side motion of such a ring and drum is entirely prevented by guiding wheels made entirely of metal, corresponding to the guiding wheels of wheel system 9 seen in FIG. 1, there is a very great danger that this kind of guiding device would break on account of the hard blows caused by the axial movements of the drum, which the guiding devices suddenly have to prevent.

According to FIG. 7 the guiding ring is made from angle bar with about a 90 angle between its flanges. According to the principle of the invention, however, corresponding guiding rings may be made from angle bars with larger or smaller than 90 angles between the flanges. Such deviations from a 90 angle may be possible in some special cases.

According to FIG. 1, guiding rings 6 are situated on both sides of the four-wheel system 9.

However, a case may be possible where the two rings at the center of the wheel system 9 are spaced at such a distance, that they are able, with their oppositely located curved side surfaces, to accomplish axial guiding with the aid of a guiding ring of angle bar fixed to the surface of the drum, which ring is disposed partly between the inner rings when the drum is seen from the direction according to FIG. 1. In such a case it is possible to use only one guiding ring 6, or two or more guidin rin s of e bar reachin artl between the wl eels %f the v v li e el system 9. Th% reiutuiil arrangement of the guiding wheels may also vary according to the invention, and likewise the location of the wheels in the wheel system.

Naturally, the invention is not restricted only to the modes of application presented above, but it may be varied considerably as to details within the scope of the patent claims. According to the main principle of the invention it may also be possible to use guiding wheels and supporting wheels, the surfaces of which that come into contact with the drum, and adjacent surfaces of the wheels may consist of other material than rubber, e. g., plastics such as nylon, but not metal.

Iclaim:

1. A drum barker comprising:

a cylindrical drum including debarking means;

rotary wheel means disposed on opposite sides of said drum for supporting said drum; at least the outer portion of said wheel means being composed of an elastic material;

guide ring means including at least two guide faces mounted around an outer periphery of said drum,

each face being arranged to contact a portion of said whee] means to resist axial movement of said drum and extending obliquely outwardly from said drum in a direction away from said wheel portion.

2. A drum barker according to claim 1 wherein:

said guide ring means includes a pair of guide rings spaced axially along said outer periphery;

each guide face being located on a respective one of said rings;

said wheel means being arranged between said guide faces; and

said guide faces extending generally divergingly from said outer periphery.

3. A drum barker according to claim 2 wherein:

each of said guide rings includes a metal angle-bar comprising a pair of flanges extending convergingly outwardly from said outer periphery;

the inner end of each flange being secured to said outer periphery.

4. A drum barker according to claim 3 wherein:

the guide face of each ring comprises the outer surface of one of said flanges;

said guide rings being arranged such that, upon axial movement of said drum toward one of said guide rings, only the outer surface of said one guide means which comprises the guide face thereof is contracted by said drum. 

1. A drum barker comprising: a cylindrical drum including debarking means; rotary wheel means disposed on opposite sides of said drum for supporting said drum; at least the outer portion of said wheel means being composed of an elastic material; guide ring meaNs including at least two guide faces mounted around an outer periphery of said drum, each face being arranged to contact a portion of said wheel means to resist axial movement of said drum and extending obliquely outwardly from said drum in a direction away from said wheel portion.
 2. A drum barker according to claim 1 wherein: said guide ring means includes a pair of guide rings spaced axially along said outer periphery; each guide face being located on a respective one of said rings; said wheel means being arranged between said guide faces; and said guide faces extending generally divergingly from said outer periphery.
 3. A drum barker according to claim 2 wherein: each of said guide rings includes a metal angle-bar comprising a pair of flanges extending convergingly outwardly from said outer periphery; the inner end of each flange being secured to said outer periphery.
 4. A drum barker according to claim 3 wherein: the guide face of each ring comprises the outer surface of one of said flanges; said guide rings being arranged such that, upon axial movement of said drum toward one of said guide rings, only the outer surface of said one guide means which comprises the guide face thereof is contracted by said drum. 